Abdulazeez Musa
Co-founder and Senior Program Manager
Abdulazeez is a youth empowerment advocate and strategist, passionate about strengthening access to opportunities for young people in issues related to education, employment, leadership and skills development. He co-founded WeCan Africa Initiative in 2018 to bridge the gap in skills, economic and education opportunities for young people, especially girls across underserved communities in Northern Nigeria. He has directly impacted over 6,000 young people through his involvement in several organisations and activities aimed at fostering socio-economic empowerment in Nigeria, especially for youths, through coordination, training, mentorship, advocacy and stakeholder engagement.
He has contributed to the successes of several policy and programs around youth in Nigeria, including the Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP) in 2020, the UNICEF U-report program in 2021, and the MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Project in 2022 through which he coordinated the training of over 39,000 young people on employability and job-ready skills in Kano State as a Program Manager at Bridge Connect Africa.
He is a UNESCO Global Youth Community Member, UNICEF U-report Ambassador, Generation Democracy Member, TransparencIT Civic Changemakers Fellow, Theirworld Global Youth Ambassador and United People Global Sustainability Leader selected as a delegate to the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership, USA, in 2021. Abdulazeez aspires for a world where young people’s ambitions and brimming potential become a cause of concern for all, to be nurtured and transformed into social and economic power for a prosperous Africa.
Abdulazeez is a youth empowerment advocate and strategist, passionate about strengthening access to opportunities for young people in issues related to education, employment, leadership and skills development. He co-founded WeCan Africa Initiative in 2018 to bridge the gap in skills, economic and education opportunities for young people, especially girls across underserved communities in Northern Nigeria. He has directly impacted over 6,000 young people through his involvement in several organisations and activities aimed at fostering socio-economic empowerment in Nigeria, especially for youths, through coordination, training, mentorship, advocacy and stakeholder engagement.
He has contributed to the successes of several policy and programs around youth in Nigeria, including the Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP) in 2020, the UNICEF U-report program in 2021, and the MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Project in 2022 through which he coordinated the training of over 39,000 young people on employability and job-ready skills in Kano State as a Program Manager at Bridge Connect Africa.
Currently, Sadiya Murtala is a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Edinburgh, where she is pursuing studies in M.Sc. Africa and International Development. Her current focus lies in widening education curricula from early years education, incorporating skills and technical competence in education. She believes this may lead to better economic empowerment and opportunities for young people and produce more capable youth who are able to champion/advocate for better access to quality education for children in rural communities as well as advocate for better government policies and programs. She believes that for development to happen, we need to better invest in and prepare the youths adequately.